


may i stand unshaken

by unusannus



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, F/F, i don't hold back on some descriptions, lowkey an ellie character study, no beta because i like to live life on the edge, spoilers for a certain death if you haven't seen the full game, this isn't particularly happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25413532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unusannus/pseuds/unusannus
Summary: In the aftermath of fighting Abby in the theatre, Ellie must pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 66





	may i stand unshaken

**Author's Note:**

> after realizing the game doesn't tell you what happens after this fight, i took it upon myself to write a potential scenario. it's a bit gritty and rough, but i think it fits the tone of a post apocalyptic world. also sorry if any medical stuff is off i just kinda winged that

Ellie lays on the floor, blood gurgling in her throat, trying hard to not throw up. She’s pretty sure her arm might be broken. She spits, the glob lands at her side, bright red with white foam. She can’t get up. Her fingers graze over her throat, the burning of her getting choked minutes beforehand lingers for far too long.

Her vision is blurry, she thinks she might be crying blood from how everything looks tinted red. It stings to blink every few milliseconds. 

“Dina?” She asks the air. The theatre lights stare glaringly at her, almost reprimanding her, and she knows she deserves so much worse. No one can answer her. Her voice feels hoarse. It hurts to speak louder than a whisper.

Sitting up, she falls immediately back down. She feels the weakest she’s ever been. She can see Dina in her peripheral vision. Unmoving and unconscious. Wiping at her eyes, Ellie begins to crawl towards her. Her chest aches. Her heart is pounding out of her chest and she feels feverish. Every inch she moves sends a shock of hurt throughout her body. 

The few feet are equivalent to a marathon as she arrives to the love of her life. 

“Dina, hey, please please-” She hacks, not used to speaking too much right now, this time it seems to only be pure blood, “Wake up, baby, please.” She uses the last of her strength to roll Dina over so her face isn’t planted on the hard floor. She yanks the arrow in her back out, at which Dina groans quietly. Her eyes don’t open.

“Wake up. Fuck, please wake up. I-I can’t do this.” Ellie pleads. She tries to sit up again, leaning heavily on her good arm and cradling the broken one as best she can. The blood is mixing with her tears, but she doesn’t wipe them away. Her breathing is beginning to quicken as anxiety sets in. Suddenly, she registers a hand tenderly touching her broken one.

“Ellie?” Dina asks, eyes opening wearily. There’s dried blood on her forehead, some is still dripping down in strips. Ellie feels like the biggest piece of shit for dragging her through this hellhole.

“I’m here.” Ellie rasps out, scooting closer she smiles down. She hasn’t lost everything.

“Head hurts.” Dina mumbles, her brows scrunch together in pain. Ellie wants to sob.  _ She did that to her. _

“I know, baby, I know.” Ellie assures her, she wants to lean in to kiss her, but is too afraid of losing her balance and not being able to get up again. “We need to go. We can’t stay here. We’ve gotta-” She gasps, taking a breath of air, “Gotta see the guys.” 

Dina nods slowly. Her strength seems to be greater as she gets up much more smoothly. She turns to Ellie, “Where are they?” She asks Ellie, and Ellie wishes she could say something entirely different than what she had to.

“Jesse is- he’s-” She chokes on her own words, saying it would mean it’s true. Dina doesn’t look like she needs a bigger hint. Her hands come up to her mouth, “No, no, no…” It’s a mantra that serves as background noise to Ellie’s own train of thought. Tommy had been shot too. They’re both laying as corpses in a random theatre in fucking Seattle for no reason other than her own selfish motives. 

She flinches at an arm on her shoulder, “ We have to go get them.” Dina tells her. Her cheeks are wet from quiet sobs. “They can’t stay here.”

Ellie silently nods. After Dina shakily stands, she helps Ellie. They lean on one another as they walk to the entrance of the building. It’s much too reminiscent of how they had arrived here in the first place.

Arriving at the doorway, they spot Jesse’s body at the same time. Ellie can only stare with wide bloodshot eyes as Dina cries, draped over him. She tries to not focus too much on his face. The one that had cracked one too many jokes and spilled far too much gossip for his own good. Now it was split open by a single bullet.

There isn’t much to cover his body with, but after looking through the bathroom’s Ellie finds some heavy duty trash bags to wrap him in. 

“Let me do it.” Ellie offers to Dina, who isn’t in the state to put her dead ex in a trash bag, but, then again, is anyone ever?

It ends up taking two bags and they need to be tied together with some rope. Ellie makes the mistake of focusing on his broken face once at too close of a distance and has to stop herself from gagging. 

Moving onto Tommy, Ellie is shocked when she hears him wheeze as she attempts to fit him in a bag. He’s still alive somehow. 

“Tommy?” Ellie asks breathlessly. Before he can answer she runs to her backpack nearby to grab some gauze and alcohol to clean the wound on his head. The bullet is off to the side. She tries to be gentle as she cleans and wraps the wound with unsteady hands.

Dina sits next to her, they wait it out to hear him speak. His breathing is slow and steady, but he doesn’t even open his eyes. For once, Ellie realizes how similar he and Joel look to each other when they’re lying on the floor, helpless and bruised.

When he does wake it’s with a start. He calms as Ellie and Dina explain to him what happened. 

The trio agree that they don’t want to spend another minute in that building and prepare their things to head off back to Jackson. Ellie dreads the conversation with Jesse’s parents. She cannot bear to think of their tear streaked faces as she explains to them that the mission she had gone on was for nought and all they had to show for it was their son stuffed into two bags.

An hour later they step out of the theatre.

“It’s raining.” Ellie observes, she clenches and unclenches her hands to stop them from shaking.

“Are you okay with that?” Dina asks. They haven’t held hands since she’d woken up. Ellie can’t bring herself to initiate the touch.

Pausing, Ellie sighs as the droplets pound onto her skin. They’re freezing cold.  _ Fuck Seattle, _ she thinks to herself, but she knows that feeling them helps her remember she’s alive. It’s not a pretty thought to have at the moment when she’d rather not be, and yet she cannot bring herself to say so out loud.

“Yeah.” She simply responds, adjusting the straps of her backpack. All she wanted now was to be home.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are super cool and very much appreciated!! thanks for reading and sorry for the sadness <3\. (if anyone was wondering the title is from unshaken by d'angelo, a song featured in the red dead redemption 2 soundtrack)


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